use for sawdust - logs/pellets?

[Rob_H]

We've just had the chimney swept for our wood burning stove in our cottage and I'm using it for the first time since we moved in (bit chilly out on the Fens today). Having dug through the wood store left by the previous owners, I found a few sack of what look like logs pr large pellets made from compressed sawdust. I imagine I could use some of the mountains of sawdust I produce, but I've never tried it. Any ideas on how to make these and it is practical?

 

[Anonymous]

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[George_N]

As a kid I remember my dad making brickettes out of coal dross and a little cement. I don't know what you would use as a binder for sawdust. There used to be a thing on the market for making 'logs' out of newspaper. The paper was shredded and soaked and then pressed into a block which obviously had to be dried before you could burn it. Maybe a similar thing would work for sawdust. Sounds like a lot of work for a small savong in fuel costs. Some wood burners can also handle small amounts of loose sawdust I think.

 

[Colin C]

As George has said cant you make a simple press e.g box with no top, holes in the bottom and a top that fits inside the box.

wet your saw dust and press and you could make it so that the sides of the box are not fixed so when a brick is pressed it can be stacked to dry.

I would guess with a few presses, a few bricks could be done at the same time, I was this on a challenge Tommy walsh program when he helped to make some bricks by hand

 

[Scrit]

You can still get the old hand briquette makers, but they don't do sawdust

Commercial briquette makers are used by larger timber plants, but they aren't cheap. Even Felder do a small one, but I believe it's around £10k. In the USA the use of briquewtters is more common with machines like the CBS which is either leased or run on a supply free and they take the output for so many years - but I think you'd need more than a home workshop to supply one of those machines

Scrit

 

[wizer]

This has been discussed before. See here:

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7917

 

[mel]

seem to remember , sometime back , that someone was stuffing empty toilet roll holders full of sawdust and then tapeing up the ends
i think this was part of a "safe delivery system" for a top loading wood burning stove

mel

 

[Anonymous]

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[DaveL]

I had a couple of different presses for the newspaper 'logs' 30 years ago, they were a bad idea then and I don't see that anything much will of changed. :x
The wet paper takes forever to dry out completely, so unless you make all of the logs in the height of summer, dry them and store them in a nice dry warm shed, you end up with damp newspaper steaming in front of the fire before you throw it on to burn. ](*,)

I burn sawdust and plannings on my shop wood burner. I have made a long handle for the shovel and can take the load into the back of the stove, unloading it by turning the shovel not throwing in the dust in. This limits the fash back problems that can happen when loading dust on to the fire.

 

[Anonymous]

Apart from burning for heat what if you could supply someone in your area who smokes food like fish and chese ect (if you get oak beech dust or shvings?) Just a thought, I expect they'd pay for it
Mr Spanton

 

[Rob_H]

Looks like I'll save them for when I get a stove from Hotspot.com for the workshop. Pity because the sawdust logs that the previous owners left burn a treat. So much so in fact that I didn't realise that the woodburner heats our water aswell (aswell as the oil fired central heating system), so just after posting I heard water bubbling very loudly and saw steam billowing from the attic - water was sloshing over the top of the wanter tanks and pouring out of the overflow down the side of the cottage. Slight flood in the attic and a free Turkish bath. Mrs H came back from a beauty treatment to find me looking like a drowned rat bailing out the attic. The local plumber suggested just keeping the fire on low. So might not need these after all....

 

[Scrit]

Rob

One thing to be aware of is that if you burn wood the flue needs to be kept clean and swept once or twice a year to ensure that you don't end up having a soot fire in the flue

Scrit

 

[Anonymous]

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[9fingers]

Prob is you can't charge a hot/burning fire with sawdust without blowback etc.

I've been thinking about getting a Hotspot stove but having read the above can anyone confirm whether or not the Hotspot can be re-fuelled with saw dust when alight without potential dramas?

TIA

Bob

 

[mel]

rob h
it sounds like what youve got is some of those pallet blocks
about four inches in thickness and glued together with some kind of resin based glue . I would suggest that its the glue thats burning and giving off the kind of heat that you say

9fingers
if you like the hairs on your arms . eyebrows and head , your best advised not to throw sawdust direct onto a hotspot stove {when its alight}

mel

 

[9fingers]

rob h

9fingers
if you like the hairs on your arms . eyebrows and head , your best advised not to throw sawdust direct onto a hotspot stove {when its alight}

mel

Thanks for the warning Mel. The hairs on most of my head are a faint memory now but eyebrows and arms still sport a few.
I guess then the only safe way to use a hotspot is to load it cold, and run it till it burns out, hoping that it provides enough heat for the day. A bit surprising as it is designed to burn sawdust.

Regards

Bob

 

[Anonymous]

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[9fingers]

Hello Jacob.

Try here for the Hotspot stoves.

http://www.thehotspot.co.uk/products.as ... =2&range=5

HTH

Bob